hi bud buds,

some sick b2c releases last week.

as a bonafide b2b boy, these past couple years i’ve mostly been paying attention to how ai is letting b2b startups spin up $1–$10 million arr businesses at breakneck speeds. but honestly, the impact of ai on b2c might end up being even more profound.

this past week, alltrails, spotify, and tiktok all dropped fun new features to make their apps feel more powerful / playful / caring. it got me wondering if we’re on the brink of a new consumer software wave — one defined by highly niche apps, as the cost to build software drops to zero. i’ve written previously about how microsocial platforms like strava, letterboxd, and goodreads are growing because they give people a safe space to contribute — while mega platforms become a place where we passively scroll. ai might further accelerate this trend.

as elon tries to build x into a super app, i’m kinda bullish on the counter bet: a future filled with micro-social tools built for tiny subcultures and close-knit friend groups. case in point, this weekend, i vibe coded a web app for my friends to coordinate coworking days in nyc. took only 1-2 hours.

people have written endlessly about how the internet has been a net alienating force for our society. however, maybe microsocial, driven by plummeting dev costs, could make the internet feel a bit more intimate again.

xoxo,
dj

last week’s product releases

sick (b2b)

sick (b2c), or: live your best lives kings + queens

  • alltrails launched peak, an $80/year tier with trail traffic heatmaps (awesome), weather forecasts, and in-app plant identification

  • apple updated apple maps to allow filtering for restaurants with michelin ratings. this is big win for my lifestyle as a rich man

  • spotify dropped ai dj with voice controls. users can request songs or switch playlist moods with voice; i like this conceptually: slightly tweaking the vibes of your listening session, in ways that are hard to distill down into hard filters. feels like a great use of ai

  • tiktok rolled out a meditation feature to help users relax + sleep. includes soothing music, breathing tools, and $2.3m in ad credits to mental health orgs. this is gonna hit so hard after my next 5 hour tik tok binge

  • audible expanded its ai-narrated audiobook library using amazon ai, with 100+ voices and plans for translation later this year. sad for our voice actor friends out there

hmmm, mildly bearish

  • uber reinvented the bus launched route share, a fixed-route weekday shuttle service at 50% off uberx. can’t see this being that profitable

  • airbnb launched services + experiences, allowing travelers to book services and experiences, like getting a massage, haircut, or chef-prepared meal. i see a slight use case here (how do i book haircut in foreign country) but feels super slim

social monetization $$$

  • youtube introduced peak points, placing ads right after high-engagement moments using gemini ai

  • youtube added shoppable tv ad feeds with qr codes for buying products during connected tv ads

  • roblox introduced commerce apis so u.s. creators 13+ can sell physical goods inside experiences

ai model news

  • harvey now uses anthropic + google models, shifting away from exclusively using openai. big +1 for the “llms commoditizing” thesis

  • windsurf released swe-1, its first ai software engineering models, optimized for the “entire software engineering process”

  • openai released gpt-4.1 models in chatgpt, with better coding help and instruction following

  • stability ai released stable audio open small, an audio gen model small enough to run on smartphones

yay for accessibility!

  • tiktok rolled out ai-generated alt text and high-contrast modes to improve accessibility. great use case for ai / computer vision!

  • apple released an array of accessibility updates, and is working on enabling people to control their iPhones with brain implants

bye i love you guys,

dj

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